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Democratic Ethics:
democratization.

by

Dean Gotcher

"In Escape from Freedom, Fromm offered the sado-masochistic character ["sado" being parent's who chasten their children for doing wrong , disobeying, sinning, and "masochistic" being children who accept their parent's authority to chasten them when they do wrong, disobey, or sin] as the core of the authoritarian personality." "The antithesis of the 'authoritarian' type was called 'revolutionary [the child responding to the parent and their authority, not only in thought (hating restraint) but in action as well (striking out against the parent, rejecting their authority)].'" "By The Authoritarian Personality 'revolutionary' had changed to the 'democratic [because parent's no longer chastened their children for doing wrong or for not obeying, since the parent's no longer held themselves, much less their children, accountable to absolutes—the child's and the parent's "feelings" of the 'moment' having replaced the parent's commands, rules, facts, and truth to be accepted as is (by faith) and obeyed without question, with the parent's chastening of their children now being social disapproved of].'" (Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination)

"We are proud that in his conduct of life man has become free from external authorities, which tell him what to do and what not to do." (Erick Fromm, Escape from Freedom)

"A new emphasis on civic participation and social interaction alone seemed capable of confronting the crisis. And, that is precisely what Fromm provided in his notion of ‘communitarian socialism.'" (Stephen Eric Bronner, Of Critical Theory and its Theorists)

"Social environmental forces must be used to change the parents behavior toward the child." (Theodor Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality)

"We may call this new order by the name of democratic socialism but the name does not matter." "All that matters is that the opportunity for genuine activity be restored to the individual; that the purposes of society and of his own become identical." (Erick Fromm, Escape from Freedom) Erick Fromm (Escape from Freedom) and Theodor Adorno (The Authoritarian Personality) are Bloom's "Weltanschauung" (world view). Bloom used their ideology as the basis for his "taxonomy of educational objectives," training educators how to turn children, under parental authority, into children "of and for" the world only.

"Concerning the changing of circumstances by men, the educator must himself be educated. The changing of circumstances and of self can only be grasped and rationally understood as revolutionary practice." (Karl Marx, Thesis on Feuerbach # 3)

"According to Marx, the correct theory is the consciousness of a practice that aims at changing the world [negating parental authority over their children, "repressing" their carnal nature, "alienating" them from becoming "at-one-with" themselves and with other children of the world, following after their carnal nature]. Marx's concept of truth [man's carnal nature, i.e., his "lust" for pleasure, enjoyment, approval by others, etc., is all that there is in the world], however, is far from relativism. There is only one truth and one practice [action] capable of realizing it. Theory [the child thinking about his desires of the 'moment' and his hate of restraint, i.e., "reflecting" upon how the world "is" with parent's "repressing" and "alienating" him and how it "ought" to be, 'liberated' from parental authority so he can do what he desires, being as he was before his parent's first command, rule, fact, or truth came into his life with them threating to chasten for doing things wrong or for disobeying them] accompanies the practice [negating parental authority in the child's feelings, thoughts, and actions, and in his relationship with others, who he wants to relate with in the world] at every moment, analyzing the changing situation and formulating its concepts accordingly. The concrete conditions for realizing the truth may vary, but the truth remains the same and the theory remains its ultimate guardian. Theory [the child's thoughts of the 'moment' taken captive to his "feelings" of the 'moment,' controlled by his love of pleasure and his hate of restraint (the restrainer)] will preserve the truth even if revolutionary practice [striking out against authority] deviates from its proper path. Practice follows the truth [action follows the child "thinking" about his and others "feelings", i.e., his and their desires of the 'moment' and his and their hate of restraint, i.e., what he has in common (as in "common-ism") with all the children of the world and what they have in common with him] not vice versa." (Herbert Marcuse, Reason and Revolution)

"Revolutionary violence [overthrowing (negating or annihilating) parental authority, i.e., the father's/Father's authority system] reconciles the disunited parties by abolishing the alienation of class antagonism [resulting from the parents distinguishing which child can do what, and when, limiting all to their (the parent's) authority, i.e., to their commands, rules, facts, and truth, repressing, i.e., inhibiting or blocking the child from satisfying his desires of the 'moment'] that set in with the repression of initial morality [the child's carnal nature, what he has in common with all the children of the world—George Hegel: "The child, contrary to appearance, is the absolute, the rationality of the relationship; he is what is enduring and everlasting, the totality which produces itself once again as such [one he is 'liberated' from parental authority]." (George Hegel, System of Ethical Life)]. … the revolution that must occur is the reaction of suppressed life, which will visit the causality of fate upon the rulers. It is those who establish such domination and defend positions of power of this sort who set in motion the causality of fate, divide society into social classes, suppress justified interests, call forth the reactions of suppressed life, and finally experience their just fate in revolution. " (Jürgen Habermas, Knowledge & Human Interest, Chapter Three: The Idea of the Theory of Knowledge as Social Theory)

"... consciousness must develop a dialectical contradiction between its immediate interests and its long-term objectives, …Only when the immediate interests [the child's "self interests"] are integrated into a total view [affirmed by others through the dialogue of everyone's opinions to a consensus, to an agreement by all based upon common "feelings"] and related to the final goal of the process [the overthrow (negation) of parental authority, i.e., children "perceiving" their parent's commands, rules, facts, and truth as being "irrational" in the 'changing' times and therefore "irrelevant" to them)] do they become revolutionary," "Marx sees … consciousness as 'practical critical activity' with the task of 'changing the world'." ( György Lukács, History & Class Consciousness Class Consciousness)

As I tried the sociometric system first on the universe and on the concept of God, its first manifesto was a revolutionary religion, a change of the idea of the universe and the idea of God. The god of Jesus was further extended, the son 'withered away' until nothing was left except the universal creativity of the Godhead and only one commandment: To each according to what he is (an all-inclusive acceptance of the individual 'as he is.'"

"Revolutionary socialism gave to Sociometry the idea of planned social action." "Sociometry is recognized by what it does, stirring to action and keeping action open but using scientific precision and experimental methods to keep action in bounds." "Sociometry differs from revolutionary socialisms in that it must be experimentally devised and controlled, that it must be applied to small groups first and applied to larger groups as the knowledge derived from small systems increased, as found in sociology." "Sociometry differs from sociology in that it uses action experiment as found in revolutionary socialism." (J. L. Moreno, Who Shall Survive? )

"The school can also continue its long-accepted role of providing within its environment a democratic society closer to the ideal than the adult community has yet been able to achieve. It can provide a setting in which young people can experience concretely the meaning of our democratic ideals. It is crucially important for children to see firsthand a society that encourages and supports democratic values." "Educational philosophies in a democratic society are likely to emphasize strongly democratic values. These four values are: 1) The importance of every human being. 2) Opportunity for wide participation in social groups in society. 3) Encouragement of variability of life styles. 4) Faith in intelligence rather than authority." "Should the school develop young people to fit into the present society as it is or does the school have a revolutionary mission to develop young people who will seek to improve the society?" Perhaps a modern school would include in its statement [that] it believes that the high ideals of a good society are not adequately realized in our present society and that through the education of young people it hopes to improve society." (Ralph W. Tyler, "Achievement Testing and Curriculum Construction," Trends in Student Personnel Work)

"Freire's main insight is that victims [children under parental authority] must develop a political awareness of their conditions before they can sufficiently master the resources to develop their learning potentials. Once the victim truly perceives the cause of his affliction and the revolutionary course to change that condition, he is free to learn." "Freire's insights and command of political realities may, in time, prove to be correct for us in the United States." (Maurice R. Berube, "Educopolitics," Social Policy, November/December 1971)

"Human consciousness can be liberated from the parental (Oedipal) complex only be being liberated from its cultural derivatives, the paternalistic state and the patriarchal God." "The abolition of repression would only threaten patriarchal domination." "Freud speaks of religion as a 'substitute-gratification' – the Freudian analogue to the Marxian formula, 'opiate of the people.'" (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)

"It has been the tendency of our military, with their authoritarian view of life [patriarchal]to be on the side of dictators [including constitutional republics—limited government] rather than people's revolutionary movements throughout the world. I would stress to the military the huge number of man-hours [which] could be used for education, for social service, for psychotherapeutic and growth-fostering activities of all sorts in order to make better citizens." (Abraham Maslow, Maslow on Management)

Kenneth Benne, Human Relations in Curriculum Change.

Karl Marx wrote: "Once the earthly family is discovered to be the secret of the heavenly [Holy] family, the former must be destroyed [Vernunft, annihilated] in theory and in practice." (Karl Marx, Feuerbach Thesis # 4)

Sigmund Freud wrote: "'It is not really a decisive matter whether one has killed one's father or abstained from the deed,' if the function of the conflict and its consequences are the same." (Sigmund Freud in Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization)

Hegel wrote: "On account of the absolute and natural oneness of the husband, the wife, and the child [their common "lust" for pleasure including the approval of men], where there is no antithesis [no "top-down" right-wrong way of thinking and acting] of person to person or of subject to object, the surplus is not the property of one of them, since their indifference is not a formal or a legal one [so your children, your wife, your property and your business are not 'just' yours but everyone else's as well, all who desire to gain pleasure from them as well, i.e., you have not 'right' to protect them from others who desire to gain pleasure from them and protect (prevent) them from gaining pleasure from others as well]." (George Hegel, System of Ethical Life) As J. L. Moreno stated it in his book Who Shall Survive?: "Parents have no right upon their offspring except a psychological right. Literally the children belong to universality."

The political ramifications:

Rousseau put it this way: "The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said 'This is mine,' and found people naive enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody." (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality) vs. "For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." 1 Corinthians 10:26 Since, according to dialectic 'reasoning,' the "earth ... and the fulness thereof" belongs to "no one," your family, your property, your business, and your very own life belongs to everyone, i.e. to society. With public-private partnership swallowing up the private, making it and you, your family, your property, your business, and your very own life subject only to the public, the master facilitator of 'change', i.e. the Antichrist, i.e. Satan, controls the world.

"Freud and Hegel are, like Marx, compelled to postulate external domination and its assertion by force in order to explain repression." "Capitulation enforced by parental authority under the threat of loss of parental love . . . can be accomplished only by repression." "Eros is fundamentally a desire for union with objects in the world. Eros is the foundation of morality." "The individual is emancipated ['liberated from the Father's authority] in the social group [his lose of love (approval) by the Father is replaced with love (approval) by society]." (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)

The spiritual ramifications:

"To experience Freud is to partake a second time of the forbidden fruit; and this book [Life Against Death] cannot without sinning communicate that experience to the reader." (Source: the March 23-30, 2005 issue of Metro Santa Cruz, an article written by Mike Connor. Connor writes "But Brown believed that the payoff was worth the price of sin―namely, that alienation would be overcome, and the return of the repressed completed, rendering problems of sin permanently moot.")

Erick Fromm wrote: "In the process of history man gives birth to himself. He becomes what he potentially is, and he attains what the serpent—the symbol of wisdom and rebellion—promised, and what the patriarchal, jealous God of Adam did not wish: that man would become like God himself." (Erick Fromm, You Shall Be As Gods)

Herbert Marcuse wrote: "If the guilt accumulated in the civilized domination of man by man can ever be redeemed by freedom, then the 'original sin' must be committed again: 'We must again eat from the tree of knowledge in order to fall back into the state of innocence.'" (Sigmund Freud as quoted in Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A philosophical inquiry into Freud)

Max Horkheimer wrote: "The family is one of these social forms which ... cannot be changed without change in the total social framework." (Max Horkheimer, Kritische Theori)

Warren Bennis wrote: "In order to effect rapid change, [one] must mount a vigorous attack on the family lest the traditions of present generations be preserved. It is necessary, in other words, artificially to create an experiential chasm between parents and children―One must teach them not to respect their tradition-bound elders, who are tied to the past and know only what is irrelevant." "Any intervention between parent and child tend to produce familial democracy regardless of its intent." "The consequence of family democratization take a long time to make themselves felt―but it would be difficult to reverse the process one begun." "Once the parent can in any way imagine his own orientation to be a possible liability to the child in the world approaching the authoritarian family is moribund, regardless of whatever countermeasures may be taken." (Warren Bennis, The Temporary Society)

Theodor Adorno wrote: "God is conceived more directly after a parental image and thus as a source of support and as a guiding and sometimes punishing authority." "The conception of the ideal family situation for the child: (1) uncritical obedience to the father and elders, (2) pressures directed unilaterally from above to below, (3) inhibition of spontaneity, and (4) emphasis on conformity to externally imposed values." "An attitude of complete submissiveness toward 'supernatural forces' and a readiness to accept the essential incomprehensibility of 'many important things' strongly suggest the persistence in the individual of infantile attitudes toward the parents, that is to say, of authoritarian submission in a very pure form." "Authoritarian submission was conceived of as a very general attitude that would be evoked in relation to a variety of authority figures―parents, older people, leaders, supernatural power, and so forth." "The power‑relationship between the parents, the domination of the subject's family by the father or by the mother, and their relative dominance in specific areas of life also seemed of importance for our problem." "A tendency to transmit mainly a set of conventional rules and customs, may be considered as interfering with the development of a clear-cut personal identity in the growing child." (Theodor Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality)

Benjamin Bloom wrote: "A psychological classification system." "We recognize the point of view that truth and knowledge are only relative and that there are no hard and fast truths which exist for all time and places." ["In the eyes of the dialectical philosophy, nothing is established for all time, nothing is absolute or sacred." Karl Marx] (Benjamin Bloom, et al., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Book 1, Cognitive Domain) "In fact, a large part of what we call 'good teaching' is the teacher's ability to attain affective objectives through challenging the student's fixed beliefs and getting them to discuss issues." "The major impact of the new program is to develop attitudes and values toward learning which are not shared by the parents." "There are many stores of the conflict and tension that these new practices are producing between parents and children." "The affective domain is, in retrospect, a virtual 'Pandora's Box." "a Weltanschauung1" "1 Cf. Erich Fromm, 1941; T. W. Adorno et al., 1950" (David Krathwohl, Benjamin Bloom, etc. Taxonomy of Educational Objective Book 2 Affective Domain)

"The whole discussion becomes species-wide, One World, at least so far as the guiding goal is concerned. To get to that goal is politics & is in time and space & will take a long time & cost much blood." ". . . A caretaker government could immediately start training for democracy & self-government & give it little by little, as deserved." "This is a realistic combination of the Marxian version & the humanistic. (Better add to definition of "humanistic" that it also means one species, One World.)" "Only a world government with world-shared values could be trusted or permitted to take such powers. If only for such a reason a world government is necessary. It too would have to evolve. I suppose it would be weak or lousy or even corrupt at first--it certainly doesn't amount to much now & won't until sovereignty is given up little by little by 'nations.'" (Abraham Maslow, The Journals of A.H. Maslow, Volumes I and II) "We must develop persons who see non-influencability of private convictions in joint deliberations as a vice rather than a virtue." (Kenneth Benne, Human Relations in Curriculum Change)

Every consensus (soviet) meeting has this one objective in mind: the negation of parental (the father's/Father's) authority in setting policy (in making law), 'liberating' man and child so that they can be as they are, carnal, of the world only, so that they can sin with impunity. In dialogue, and in your opinion, there is no father's/Father's authority, i.e., no "can not's," "must not's," "Thou shalt not's," only your "ought to be's," with you talking to yourself, "Well, I ought to be able to go out." when your father tells you that "you can not." with him saying "Because I said so." when you asked him "Why?," your "Why?" being your effort to get into dialogue, converting his position "You can not go out" into an opinion, i.e., "I don't think (or feel like) you should go out," giving you wiggle room to get him to 'change' his mind, basing the outcome upon the "feelings" of the 'moment' rather than upon established commands, rules, facts, and truth. This is the "democratic ethics" of the so called "new world order," with "big brother," i.e., the facilitator of 'change' "helping" children 'liberate' themselves from their father's/Father's authority system, so that they can be "normal," i.e., so that they can sin without having a "guilty conscience," 'creating a "new" world order made in their 'image', a world of unrighteousness and abomination. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9 "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Luke 16:15

"Bypassing the traditional channels of top-down decision making, our objective centers upon transform public opinion into an effective instrument of global politics." "Individual values must be measured by their contribution to common interests and ultimately to world interests.... transforming public consensus into one favorable to the emergence of a stable and humanistic world order." "Consensus is both a personal and a political step. It is a precondition of all future steps." (Ervin Laszlo, A Strategy for the Future: The Systems Approach to World Order)

"And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable." " As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." Isaiah 3:4-5, 12

© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2016, 2018